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Ump Has 3 Calls Overturned

Mike Marasco

09 October 2018

While the New York Yankees pitching staff was not having a great night, one other man on the field seemed to have an even worse night.

On a night where Luis Severino allowed six runs and recorded only nine outs; manager Aaron Boone getting booed mercifully by the home crowd and the Yankees took their worst postseason beating in franchise history, 16-1, then nobody could have had a worse night.

Yet, there was and that that person was first base umpire Angel Hernandez who had multiple calls overturned by video replay.

Hernandez, the veteran umpire whose work often draws the ire of the players and fans alike, was at it again during Game 3 of the ALDS between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. In the first four innings of Monday’s game, replay reviewed and overturned three of his calls. Hernandez also had a missed call at second base in Game 2, so it has not been a great series for him.

Only five other umpires have had three calls overturned in a single game since replay was implemented., but this was the first time there had been three calls overturned in a single postseason game.

The first review came in the bottom of the second, with a man on first, Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius tried to bunt to get on. Pitcher Nathan Eovaldi slipped as he fielded the ball, but he managed to get his throw over in time to beat Gregorius to the bag by half a step. Hernandez didn’t see it this way and called him safe. Boston asked for the review and 90 seconds later Gregorius was ruled out.

Then in the third, New York second baseman Gleyber Torres bounced a grounder to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who made an amazing play but couldn’t get the throw off in time. Hernandez called Torres out. That call was overturned as well.

When Luke Voit, the Yankees first baseman, legged out an infield single in the fourth Boston was just in the habit of challenging Hernandez’ calls, however this one was confirmed and the ump just grinned as he returned to his position.

A couple batters later Gregorius grounded into the shift. Boston tried to turn the double play but missed. Hernandez saw it totally differently though. Gregorius was so sure that he was safe he never moved from first base. In a review that took 28 seconds, Hernandez’ call was overturned once again.

That’s right, four reviewed calls and only one was confirmed. To be fair, he did have a better average on reviewed calls than many of the Yankees had at the plate on Monday.

Thankfully, none of the calls came in key situations that figured into the outcome of the game since the Yankees were blown away 16-1 by Boston. It wasn’t a Jim Joyce – Armando Galarraga situation, thankfully and video review got the calls right, which is the point of it.

However, this disastrous show by Hernandez comes just a week after his lawsuit against MLB for discrimination was moved to New York from Cincinnati. Hernandez alleges that MLB and chief baseball officer Joe Torre have discriminated against him because he is Latino, he was born in Cuba, and have denied him opportunities to serve as a crew chief and to work the playoffs.

After that performance, maybe MLB should be countersuing for malpractice.

With today’s political climate in the States it is possible that MLB is taking his ethnicity into account, but it is more than likely his history of conflict with players. In 2010 an ESPN poll named him the third worst umpire in the game. The only two that were worse than him were CB Bucknor and Joe West.

Following Monday night’s game, Red Sox Hall of Fame pitcher and current TBS analyst Pedro Martinez said, “Major League Baseball needs to do something about Angel Hernandez … he’s as bad as there is.”

Other than former players speaking out on Monday, nobody else seemed to want to say much. Hernandez declined to comment, and the league released a statement lauding video replay, “There were several very close calls at first base tonight, we are glad that instant replay allowed the umpiring crew to achieve the proper result on all of them.”

The video review team might get a bit of a reprieve on Tuesday night though as Hernandez is scheduled to be on the plate for Game 4 of the series between the Red Sox and Yankees. He should thank his lucky stars that balls and strikes are not reviewable.

It might be better if he is blindfolded while working the dish, that way he has a better chance of being right.